Address: A340 Langley Hall
Research interests: We use the assembly of bacteriophage virions as model systems to understand proteins that act together in macromolecular complexes. We are trying to devise new and better ways to capture biochemical snapsots or images of the structure of protein complexes as they assemble and then map the changes in structure that occur after initial assembly. We look to see what kinds of covalent and conformational changes occur after protein complex assembly and how proteins use such covalent and conformational changes to regulate their catalytic activities and assembly interactions?
Experimental systems: Currently much of our work on bacteriophage assembly is focused on looking at the structure, assembly and molecular genetics of Bacteriophage HK97 capsids. We also have ongoing studies of Bacteriophage Lambda tail assembly and Bacteriophage Lambda side tail fiber assembly.